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This was an article written by Marilyn Tackett Richmond.
"Johnson's Mill Town" was considered the first Bigbee. Captain W P (Billy) Johnson sometime after 1850 and before 1878 established this mill town. Since it was only two miles north of Cotton Gin Port, its growth was hindered. A road led northeast to the Thames Ferry. This ferry road went through what is now the driveway of the Bill Carroll's home, crossing the Amory to Cotton Gin Port Road about two miles northeast of Cotton Gin Port. Therefore, you can see the first Bigbee was not located where the present Bigbee is located. Bigbee is still a large unicorporated community.
Before the Frisco railroad and bridges, the people forded the Tombigbee River at low stages. At high water stages they used flat boats to cross. Captain Billy Johnson's "Lilly Lou", a steamboat, was used by many people to go to Aberdeen, the county seat of Monroe County.
Johnson's Mill befroe 1878 was probably the mill that furnished the crossties for the area railroad which began in 1888.
The present Bigbee was established in 1893 when Houston Brother Lumber Company bought land and built a sawmill there. Houston was pronounced Howston. They built a hotel, a boarding house, for the crew and two story or commissary for their over 100 employees and families. Bigbee was the first place outside of Amory to have electric lights as the company had their own dynamo to make electricity. They built a one room school which was used for church and school. This building was about one-half mile from the present Bigbee. Other schools in the area were Foster in 1883, Pleasant Grove in 1889 and Rollins around the same time. Houston Brothers was the largest sawmill in the state and possibly the largest east of the Mississippi River.
The logs were cut from forest filled with virgin timber and floated down the Tombigbee river. There were two large holding lakes in the area where Bigbee was built; these can still be seen. When the timber was all cut, the mill closed and moved to another section of the state. This caused the community of Bigbee to almost evaporate. Records show that some men paid taxes on as many as four sections of land between 1862-1890. It is known that some were offered the land for $5 an acre. The land was bought for the timber rather than the soil.
The first stores in present Bigbee were west of the railroad and there was a post office south of them facing the railroad. The three stores that were in Bigbee before the new highway 6 was built were run by W A "Red' Bonds, "Red" Edwards, and Mr Cain. There was a gristmill, a blacksmith shop, a planeing mill and later a beauty shop.
My family is important to me as yours is to you, so I'd like to list in order beginning with me my ancestors: Marilyn Tackett married Robert R Richmond; father was Woodrow Owen Tackett; grandfather, called papa by me, Enos Terrell Tacket; great grandfather Sidney Smith Tackett; great great grandfather Abner H Tackett; great great great grandfather Lancaster H Tackett; great great great great grandfather John Tackett; and the first to come to America was Louis Tacquet.
On my mother's side I do not do so well. In the same order, Marilyn Tackett Richmond; mother Louise Bailey (married Woodrow Tackett); grandfather Jasper Monroe Bailey (married Louveles Grissom); great grandfather Will Baily (married a Parker who was an Indian.)
Both of my grandfathers worked for Houston Brothers. My grandfather Enos T Tackett worked for them beginning in 1895 when he was 13 years old. He was familiar with sawmill work because he had been helping his uncle Enos A Tartt who ran a small independent sawmill near the present Cason Community. Papa Tackett had already gone to live with his Uncle Enos A Tackett even though his parents, Sidney S and Mary E Tartt Tackett were still living.
My other grandfather, Jasper Bailey, worked as a rafter, meaning he rode the logs from above Fulton down the river to the big mill at Bigbee where he road a horse home which was near the Liberty Community. Papa Bailey was one half Indian and his ways were a little different. Wherever he went he fashioned wells for thirsty travelers throughout the hills above Bigbee from natural springs. He would hone out a trough for the water to fall into and he would push a pipe into the spring. Then he would build split log benches for resting after a cool drink of spring water. My great grandfather Will Bailey operated a small store in Bigbee which was located near the gristmill.
Another interesting fact about Papa Jasper Bailey is that he went to Oklahoma to live with the Indians for two years. He left enough money and provisions for his family and left the two oldest boys in charge and he and his brother, Uncle Sugh, went to Oklahoma.
There was a female doctor of medicine in the area. She was Mrs Nancy Crockrell Hester who attended the men mill workers, their families and any other inhabitants in the area. She had no formal education in medicine, but trained under her father, Dr Crockrell in Red Bay Alabama. Her husband moved to the Bigbee Community because of the timber. He was John Hester.
Houstons Mill owners provided Dr Hester with a fine horse for her travels, which were estensive over the wide area. She performed surgery on the men's legs and arms and any part of the body which had been injured at work as well as what we'd call "family practice" today.
The John Hester's had a very large family so they had two houses side by side instead of adding on to the original house as the family increased. The location of these log houses was on what is now highway 371 at the Bigbee Cutoff Road.
According to Mrs Effie B Hester Carpenter, the area which was called Bigbee Fork at this time, began near the present Evergreen Community on the Itawamba County line and extended across what is now Liberty Community, Pine Grove Community, and Bigbee Bottom to the river. Miss Effie was the local historian. She knew so many interesting stories of the events which had happened during her life. She remembered many incidents and facts which were told her by her parents and others.
She was first cousin to papa Tackett and often told how the Houston sawmill helped the economy of this area. She loved to describe the "log rolling" socials which went on for at least two days which included games, dancing, good music, and lots of visiting between the families. I remember Miss Effie as a very old lady, but I loved to talk to her about her life and the past. One time she took me to the graves of my great grandfather Sidney Tackett and my great grandmother Mary Tartt Tackett who are buried in the Cason Community Union Grove Cemetary.
Miss Effie was the daughter of Pink Hester who was the son of the doctor. Pink Hester married Sally Tartt, my great aunt who was the sister to my great grandmother."
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